‘Brick’ (2025) Netflix Movie Review - Philip Koch Traps You In A Room Full Of Unexciting Clichés

Writer-director Philip Koch opens his Brick from inside the body of an insect. A few minutes later, we see Tim (Matthias Schweighöfer) in an office meeting when suddenly the Wi-Fi stops working. He mentions that there might be a bug in the system. Is this why Koch gave us a literal bug during the film's opening? Given the complications between Tim and Olivia (they experienced the pain of a miscarriage, after which their marriage only grew cold and distant), can we say that there is a bug in their relationship? The story's sci-fi element involves a mysterious, high-tech brick wall that traps Tim, Olivia, and other characters inside their building. Yuri (Murathan Muslu) states that the wall serves as a defense mechanism to protect the residents from toxic gases or radiation. He also adds that, according to his friend (or roommate?), the walls are the result of a system malfunction. The mechanism could have been triggered due to a bug in the system. Ah, there is that B-word again. No wonder the camera often catches little insects around the room, either on walls or tables. 

There is another way to interpret these brick walls. When Olivia decides to leave Tim and packs her bags, she notices the barrier and asks Tim to let her leave the apartment. Are these walls some kind of metaphor, suggesting that Tim is not ready to let go of Olivia — that he's not prepared for the break-up? What's more, when everyone takes turns talking about death, we wonder whether their physical confinement is somehow related to their mental confinement. Koch allows you to bring up these associations, but ultimately, he doesn't develop any of these interesting notions. He's a very literal-minded director, which is why he reaches for the lowest-hanging fruit. He relies on unexciting clichés. All that mystery ends up wasted on bland violence. I rolled my eyes when that old trick, where the bad guy turns out to be not so dead, was recycled. The ending, too, is just meh. Koch might be suggesting that humans are superior to machines, but the message is incoherent. Brick, in the end, is just another Netflix film that's doomed to be forgotten.

Final Score- [1.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times